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These training programs, it appears, are not based on adequate course materials or high academic standards. They are not taught by properly trained and qualified teachers, and they are not taught in accredited schools. "Schooling for skills" will never be effective until these conditions are corrected.

The American Foundation for World Trade Studies, Inc., through its development of the Electronic Education and Information Center, proposes to correct these conditions by the professional development of uniform and coordinated course materials of the highest academic standards to be taught to students at local levels throughout the United States by qualified professional teachers at hundreds of schools, colleges and universities throughout the United States utilizing the very latest and most efficient electronic devices and the most effective teaching aids. Such courses would not only supply a great amount of practical manual knowledge, but would also include in the mix, discrete amounts of basic schooling in reading, writing and arithmetic, all presented in such a way as to stimulate interest and create motivation with an eye to keeping a student in the course, however slowly he might progress.

It is anticipated that the courses will have a great amount of built-in professional presentation which, when added to the professionalism of trained high school teachers, business school teachers, junior college and university professors and instructors, will bring about the desired result. The hundreds of school-based facilities are outlets, or arms, so to speak, reaching out to virtually every important U.S. city and to all students who wish to take vocational training. There are some 3.6 million young people coming into the labor market annually who need some kind of "schooling for skills" to prepare them for good jobs at good pay.

It is true that a much greater attention is now being paid to this educational situation than was the case a few years ago. Today there are some 5,430,611 students (Office of Education preliminary 1966 figures) taking some kind of vocational training under some kind of Federal assistance, reported state by state as follows:

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This is good as far as it goes, but it does not go far enough to meet the evergrowing urgency in this educational field-these 3.6 million boys and girls coming into the labor market annually deserve a better chance than they now have to prepare themselves for a better and more rewarding life here in this Nation, which generally has reached a pinnacle never before attained in the history of the world. These programs will become a principal product of the Electronic Education and Information Center in Washington. The other two products of which will be Information and Research. All three will be produced in a well-equipped center

10, 121

Total

5, 430, 611

where there will be radically new ways to retrieve it and to make it available to people-a new world of electronic conveniences in books and information through remote inquiry and automatic catalogue search.

to:

It will be an electronic and computerized information center, providing services

1. Educational Institutions

2. Business

3. Trade

4. Research organizations

5. Professional and educational organizations

6. Banks

7. Chambers of Commerce

8. Libraries

9. Governmental Agencies, Federal and State

10. Individuals and the public at large.

The services of the "E & I" Center will help significantly to serve the Nation's growing needs for education and information facilities.

Mr. POWELL. Yes, sir.

Now, the only revenues we would develop, and out of which we would pay off the bonds and the interest, would be a nominal charge for parking of $1.50 or less per car for all-day parking for the 7,000 spaces, plus we plan to have more parking spaces, probably underground, at the L Street end of this.

Mr. GRAY. Since we are talking about 4,000 spaces primarily for visitors, you possibly would envision, some of this space being used by the Government employees who work in the proximity of this area? Mr. POWELL. Oh, yes. Anyone who wants to come park there.

Mr. GRAY. How would your $1 to $1.50 compare, say, with the parking lots downtown that are privately operated?

Mr. FoWELL. It would be much, much less expensive. Parking lots downtown run anywhere from $37 to $50 a month on a monthly basis, and for all-day parking well over $2.

Mr. GRAY. So if a Government employee parks 5 days a week for 4 weeks, he would only pay $25 to $30 here to park in your facility, compared to more than $37 he is paying now on a monthly basis downtown?

Mr. POWELL. That is correct. That is correct.

Mr. GRAY. Of course, holidays and other things off would be subtracted from it.

Mr. POWELL. Yes, sir.

And of course the only reason charges are made at all is we do have to generate enough revenue to pay off the bonds and the interest for having built this project.

Mr. GRAY. What other charges besides the parking lot would you envision?

Mr. POWELL. The only other charge would be a rental of the several floors above this floor.

Mr. GRAY. You do not envision any individual charge to visitors who might want to go in and see exhibit space?

Mr. POWELL. None whatever. We would have nothing to do with that.

Mr. GRAY. Now, I, for one, would certainly not want to see any kind of attraction adjacent to this Visitor Center that would gouge the visitor. This is one of the complaints we have now, visitors come to Washington, they plan to stay a week, but stay only 2 days on the average because they find it so expensive; one has to pay $3 or $4 a day to

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park his car if he can find a place. This is one of the reasons we are trying to provide this facility, in order that we can show our great Capital here not only to domestic but foreign visitors, without them being overcharged. They can come here, park their car, see free exhibits, and we even hope some parts of this shuttle service can be free to the Capitol; so we are trying to move in the direction of less costwith more to see and learn.

I want to make it clear for the record you do not envision admission fees, et cetera, for the first floor.

Mr. POWELL. We anticipate absolutely no admission fees or any other charge to any visitor of any kind or nature whatsoever.

Mr. GRAY. You are talking about the income to amortize your bonds from corporations that might want to display their goods and services here, or that might want to rent office space and this type of thing?

Mr. POWELL. That is true. The rental and also any attraction. For example, if we did want to set up on one floor a trade exhibit, and so forth, we would expect to have to get approval of that from the Secretary of the Interior, because we realize that you do not want any parallel attraction which may disrupt or in any way detract from the Visitor Center itself.

Mr. GRAY. What do you envision, Mr. Powell, as the total cost of this proposal that you are making?

Mr. POWELL. The total cost-I have a sheet here which will show that very clearly.

Mr. GRAY. We will look at that. We are running a little late in time. (Slide.)

Mr. POWELL. Your 712 floors, including the foundations, would be a total number of square feet of 10,539,000, which would be $239 million. The purchase of the air rights over the tracks we have at $5 million. That figure was arrived at by making it in direct proportion to the cost in New York City of the square footage over the railroad tracks in Manhattan there.

Now, it is adjusted because of the fact that in Manhattan, they could build over that space about 24 floors of building, whereas here we have to keep our height down. The present zoning that part of Washington is 90 feet, so we cannot get the same vertical developments that they could in New York. So we took a proportion, approximate proportion of the price paid for this type of square footage, air rights, that was paid in New York City.

Mr. GRAY. We are talking about a total package of $323,335,592? Mr. POWELL. That is right.

Mr. GRAY. And you feel that just from renting office space and not more than $1.50 for parking would amortize that type of project?

Mr. POWELL. Yes. I have that analysis here-(slide)—which shows the annual operating income after the fourth year; that would be when it would be completed.

The rental from 51/2 levels would be $25,275,000 a year at $6 per square foot.

Now, of course, the total gross square footage of 10.5 million has been reduced by 80 percent to allow for elevators, escalators, hallways, skylights, and so forth. And then we have taken a 10 percent reduction of the rental rate applied to that figure as a continuing vacancy rate and come up with $25,275,000 income from rental.

Mr. GRAY. How does your proposed rental per square foot for office space compare with the average new building around Washington?

Mr. POWELL. I would say it is very favorable. I know from my own office space we are paying well over $7 a square foot, but of course that is good space. But I would say that you will not find good office space for anything under $5.

Mr. GRAY. Have you had any research group or any detailed study as to what the potential would be for filling up this facility?

Mr. POWELL. We have had and we find that there are so many variables in it, you cannot come up with an explicit prediction that you can expect to turn out exactly as predicted. However, the space would be prime. It would be located in a very central location. It would have the benefit of parking right outside the door. It would also have the benefits of public transportation right on the premises. And all of these factors we feel would enable us to rent the space without much trouble at all, especially when you consider the demand for space, the increasing demands for rented space in Washington. Mr. GRAY. What is this, a 25-year amortization?

Mr. POWELL. We have a 23-year amortization period.
Mr. GRAY. 23-year?

You envision paying the District of Columbia approximately $50 million in taxes alone?

Mr. POWELL. Around $52 million. That was based on taking the cost of the building and applying a 65 percent rate to that, and then 214 percent taxes. I believe that is the way real estate taxes are figured. Mr. GRAY. You are not asking for any type of moratorium on real estate taxes for the public?

Mr. POWELL. None whatever. None whatever. It would produce enough money for the District to certainly-well, more than do its share in any street rearrangement to accommodate ramps, and so forth.

There will be other income items.

Mr. SCHWENGEL. Will the gentleman yield?

Mr. GRAY. Yes; the gentleman from Iowa, Mr. Schwengel.

Mr. SCHWENGEL. I realize what you say, you want to pay for the expenses, the cost of rearranging streets, and so forth. Then that does not help the District any at all in handling some of their problems. Their problems would be increased with this kind of installation. I want to say, parenthetically, I am not against what you are trying to do; I just want to raise some questions here.

Mr. POWELL. Yes.

Mr. SCHWENGEL. Because I know how starved this District is and how much it needs money for schools and a lot of other things. It seems to me you are asking for special consideration as far as property tax is concerned.

Mr. POWELL. Asking what?

Mr. SCHWENGEL. Special consideration as far as property tax. You are giving the District enough money to pay for the extra cost of building roads and facilities in connection with this for this operation, and not contributing anything to the District general tax funds; is that right?

Mr. POWELL. Congressman Schwengel, I beg to correct you on that statement.

We, first of all, except and have computed in our construction costs the cost of the entire building ramps, reconstruction of the underpasses at H, K, and L Streets, under our construction costs.

When I make the point that the $52 million or the $2.7 million a year would be more than ample, I mean more by hundreds of percents. Mr. GRAY. Let's put it another way. How much do you envision will be the cost to the District of Columbia for widening streets and accommodating 7,000 cars to be brought in?

Mr. POWELL. Yes. Whatever rearrangements might have to be made completely outside of this construction of ramps and access and all that, we would pay for all of that. So the $52 million is not considered a budget which is expected to be fully expended, or anywhere near it, because of this project being built. In fact, the $52 million is thought of as a contribution to the general revenues of the District of Columbia and for the purpose of education and schools and whatever else the District needs the money for.

Mr. GRAY. You feel this would be a great benefit to the District of Columbia?

Mr. POWELL. Oh, absolutely.

Mr. GRAY. In the way of funds?

Mr. POWELL. We also have about a $19 million contingency fund within the allowable issuable bonds to take up additional costs which might as you know, they frequently occur in projects of this nature. Mr. GRAY. Let me ask you a frank question. Do you think you could get the financial interests, the bonding people to underwrite such an undertaking as this?

Mr. POWELL. We are told that we have that. All we need is an exemption on the bonds and we will get the financing. This has all been discussed.

Mr. GRAY. So the financiers feel that there is some merit to this proposal?

Mr. POWELL. Who does?

Mr. GRAY. The financiers who will underwrite this feel there is some merit to the plan?

Mr. POWELL. Yes.

Mr. GRAY. You have studied it in depth to know this is not some wild scheme?

Mr. POWELL. Absolutely. We have conferenced in New York with large underwriting firms, and particularly one, and they advise us that under certain conditions, that this is very feasible, and they are anxious to help do a syndicating of the underwriting for these bonds.

They tell us that they would like to see us, during the 3 years the building is being built, begin to get contingent lease contracts and do everything that we can in order to help them in placing the bonds.

Now, these bonds would, in all likelihood, be placed in large blocks, with insurance companies and other large institutions. They would probably not be sold to the public at large, though they might be. It would be up to the underwriting syndicate how they would be placed or sold. But the arrangements have already been made for that.

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